Manage finances
Code of Practice statement: Budget effectively, manage finances wisely, and account openly for all income and expenditure.
SPECIAL DISTINCTION STANDARD: The management committee agrees and implements fundraising strategies, which are linked to the business planning process, and successfully raises funds.
You may wish to include:
- business plan: financial plan, financial forecasts
- successful funding bids
- set of three or four staff/management minutes (agreeing fundraising strategies, monitoring and evaluating).
Other resources
Community Accountancy Self Help (CASH) - a London based community accountancy project that provides financial advice and training to small charities and voluntary groups. Their services include one-to-one casework, training courses and publications, all of which are geared towards providing people with the basic financial skills needed to run successful organisations: writing budgets, bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, cash accounting, preparing finance reports for trustees and fundraising. Free resources online: www.cash-online.org.uk/
Charity Commission - Charities have a duty to be transparent and accountable to donors, beneficiaries and the public. Registered charities are required by law to provide certain documents to the Commission and to keep their information on the public Register up to date. All charities must prepare annual accounts and all registered charities must, and all charities should, prepare a trustees’ annual report.
Trustees of charities with income exceeding £10,000 in their last financial year are required to complete and submit an Annual Return. For financial years ending before 1st April 2009 they must also submit a copy of the Trustees’ Annual Report and accounts. For more information, visit the Charity Commission's webpages on managing your charity.
Finance Hub - The Finance Hub is developing financial sustainability in the Third Sector within England. They address finance matters in the Third Sector through the delivery of an integrated programme of research, development, training and information dissemination.
There is a lot more to successful fundraising than writing funding applications. While bringing in funds for your organisation may seem to be the most obvious place to start, you have a duty to show that your organisation is able to receive and manage funds properly. For resources, help and advice please visit: www.financehub.org.uk/funding_fundamentals/default.aspa